“Sorry,” she sniffed. “I don’t mean to ruin your day.” She wiped away more tears with the back of her hand.
“Oh honey,” Simone said, reaching out her hand. “Don’t be sorry. You’re heartbroken. It’s okay, you’re allowed to be upset.”
“I guess I was just being a stupid girl, but I really thought we had something.”
“You did, honey. If it hadn’t been real, he wouldn’t have celebrated with you the way he did in the moment at breakfast.”
“She’s right, Drea,” Leona added. “He could have just been talking out his ass that morning before he left. He was upset about your uncles, and Dalton said he got a text about his mom being sick, so he was probably just stressed.”
“He told me to have a nice life! That’s not talking out your ass!” Drea exploded.
“Girl, I don’t know if you’ve figured this out yet, being raised by three men and all, but guys are dumbasses. Not some of them—all of them. Some more so than others, but they are all dumbasses on some level or another. Sometimes they come to the realization of their dumbassery on their own, other times they need help realizing it. Have faith he’ll come around.”
“It’s over. He won’t ‘come around.’ He’s gone back to Florida, for crying out loud. I wasn’t important enough to fight for. I was just a convenient fuck.”
“You were not!” Leona exclaimed. “Sweetie, I know it sucks because you pined after him forever, but you can’t seriously think that’s all you were.”
“Well, it doesn’t matter now, does it? Besides, today is Simone’s day, and I’m going to smile and be happy if it fucking kills me.”
“I can’t believe he actually booked you guys the honeymoon suite,” Leona said to Simone, as she wrapped her hair around a curling iron.
It had taken Leona almost forty-five minutes to get Drea’s hair straightened with the little flatiron, and then another thirty to recurl and pin into an updo. Her head ached a little from all the pulling and the scraping of the bobby pins against her scalp, but even she had to admit she looked pretty good. If someone looked at her and didn’t know she felt half dead inside, they would think she was the picture-perfect maid of honor.
“Only for the night,” Simone clarified. “Actual guests have it booked starting tomorrow.”
“Still, it’s romantic.”
Drea turned away so no one could see her roll her eyes. It wasn’t exactly the pinnacle of romance that the man booked a hotel room in a resort he owned. Even if he had planned the whole thing months in advance, blocking off the night so guests could book up until the Friday before, and then again the Sunday after. Damn it, she thought, maybe it was romantic.
“Believe it or not, not only does the man have non-jackass moments, but he can actually be wonderfully sweet at times. You just have to get past the gruff exterior.”
“Or not be his niece,” Drea threw out. She knew she wasn’t being fair to him, but she couldn’t bring herself to care. Overall he was a kind and generous person. She knew firsthand just how wonderful he could be, and how much he cared about those around him. He considered every person who worked for the Indigo Royal a member of the family, and there wasn’t much he wouldn’t do for them. But when it came to his actual family, he sometimes had a funny way of showing it. A way that, this time, had pushed too far.
After their hair and makeup was complete, everyone other than Simone left the room and Drea slipped into her dress. She’d always loved this dress, as it had always made her feel beautiful. It was a deep charcoal. The top was fitted and had little spaghetti straps, while the A-line skirt hit her hips perfectly, fanning out just enough before ending a little above her knees. The sweetheart neckline hugged her breasts perfectly, showing off just a hint of cleavage. She wondered what Kyle would have thought about her in this dress. Racking her brain, she tried to think about whether or not she’d ever worn it in front of him and she couldn’t remember.
When she had decided this would be the dress she wore for the wedding, she thought about how the neckline would drive him insane. She thought about how he wouldn’t be able to take his eyes off of her in this dress, whispering in her ear about how he couldn’t wait to take it off of her. Her imagination had run wild with thoughts of him staring at her cleavage all night, about him slipping his hand up her skirt to see if she was wearing any panties. The thought had occurred to her that she could get away with not wearing any under this dress and no one would know—that was until Kyle discovered it for himself.
Thoughts of them dancing the night away, him spinning her around and the skirt on the dress billowing out slightly as she twirled had also crossed her mind. She’d pictured them sitting at dinner, picking off each other’s plates, sipping from each other’s drinks. In her mind, they had been doing all the things that happy couples do together at weddings and celebrating love. But now that was all gone.
“Oh, Drea, you’re a vision!” Simone exclaimed, starting to tear up.
“Don’t cry, don’t cry!” Drea said. “You’ll mess up your makeup and then I’m going to have to get Leona back in here to fix it.”
“I’m fine, I’m fine,” she said, waving her hands frantically in front of her eyes trying to dry them. “You just look so perfect. I know that today is a little weird and that you’re not really feeling it, but thank you for still being my maid of honor. Being a part of your life these last twenty-one years has been one of my greatest joys, and I know that sounds cheesy, but really, I mean it. I have loved every second of being your aunt, and I couldn’t imagine anyone else standing next to me today.”
“I love you too, Aunt Simone,” Drea said, fighting back her own tears now.
“Oh, don’t start that! I’ll never make it out of here in one piece!”
There was suddenly a heavy knock on the door and Drea and Simone looked at each other, confused. They still had almost an hour until the ceremony, and they weren’t expecting anyone prior to the photographer who had told them to be ready forty-five minutes before the ceremony time.
“Who is it?” Drea asked.
“Vaughn.”
“No, you can’t see me before the wedding! It’s bad luck!” Simone exclaimed, looking around for a place to hide.
The door opened and Vaughn stepped in, his right hand clasped tightly over his eyes. He stood just inside the doorway, looking very dapper in his light gray suit. There was an off-white pocket square peeking out from his breast pocket and his silver hair seemed to have some sort of product in it. He looked like he belonged in a magazine.
